So we’ve always thought the Monome is a pretty cool device for making music, among other random uses its makers have come up with. The Monome is like the nerd’s paradise for audio: simple, with a beautiful design, and so many different applications because of its simplicity and integration with MaxMSP, which opens up so many applications and possibilities if you know how to program or are friends with a programmer who will hook you up. Actually, you don’t even have to have any friends to get cool applications for max/msp that can be used with the Monome! Ah, but we digress.

So check out this video demonstration of the monome from its makers:

Pretty cool, huh?

At any rate, the point of this post is not to tout how awesome the Monome is (even though it really is awesome), but rather to clarify something about a song used in a Monome demonstration made by the Monome company! Check it out:

So we came across this video and it’s actually how we discovered the Monome. Late hours wasting time on YouTube will lead you to things like this. We’ve all been there before. Well, so this video–Monome device aside–struck us as really nice in aesthetic terms. The song is beautiful, the flashing lights are kind of cool, but mostly the song is great. So, we managed to get a hold of the producer of the song–Tehn–and he hooked us up. However, this was back when he had the song available on his web site, which is interesting in and of itself. However, it seems as though the song from the video above is no longer available on Tehn’s site. If it is, we just weren’t looking hard enough. However, to save you the trouble, you can just save this download link for yourself!

If you want to just stream the full song,  entitled “jan18cold,”   before downloading, then here it is,

Special thanks to Tehn and the Monome team for doing what they do.

Velapene Screen – “Chop Suey:”

Squarepusher, or Tom Jenkinson, is an British electronic music artist signed to Warp Records. He writes experimental electronic music, drawing a lot of influence from drum and bass and jazz. Jenkinson was born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1975 and studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. At shows, Jenkinson often uses a fretted bass guitar, a laptop, and various other hardware. He has appeared twice on BBC Radio 1′s The Breezeblock show.

Squarepusher sequenced his pre-2000 work on a BOSS DR-660 drum machine. He uses hardware for his electronic music such as Akai samplers, (S950 for early work, S6000 for later work), a Roland SH-101 synthesizer, a Roland TB-303 bassline synthesizer, and a reel-to-reel tape machine. Around the year 2000, Squarepusher bought a computer with Reaktor and an Eventide Orville for digital processing. According to a list of gear from the official website, Squarepusher owns the following:

“Bass guitars: Music Man / Rickenbacker 4001 / Custom built 6 string.
Guitars: Classical and Baritone classical / custom electric guitar.
Software: Reaktor custom algorithms.
Electronic Hardware: Eventide “Orville” + “DSP4000″ using only homemade algorithms/ Yamaha sequencer / 16 track tape machine / MackieDesk / Sine wave generator / Roland SH101 / Octave “Cat” synth / AKG414 mics / Home made + AKG analogue reverb units / DAT recorder.
Percussion: Ludwig drum kit / Balinese percussion / xylophone.
Other: some wires, mains leads, a room to put it all in, cooperative neighbors, etc. ”

He has been known to play Fender, Ernie Ball, and Warwick basses.

Squarepusher is known for using the Amen break in his most famous songs.

He is currently performing live with drummer Alex Thomas.

Albums:

Feed Me Weird Things (June 3, 1996)

Hard Normal Daddy (April 28, 1997) #115 UK

Burningn’n Tree (November 10, 1997)

Buzz Caner (May 25, 1998) (as Chaos A.D.)

Music Is Rotted One Note (October 12, 1998)

Budakhan Mindphone (March 1, 1999) #183 UK

Selection Sixteen (November 8, 1999)

Go Plastic (June 25, 2001) #100 UK

Do You Know Squarepusher (September 30, 2002) #192 UK

Ultravisitor (March 8, 2004) #90 UK

Hello Everything (October 16, 2006) #89 UK

Just a Souvenir (October 27, 2008)

Top Ten:

1. “Tundra:” Often referred to as the track that all boys should listen to before becoming men. It’s “Tundra.” We first heard the song in 1996, when it was released on Feed Me Weird Things. One of the greatest things about this track is the fact that you can listen to it over and over again and it never gets old the way most songs do. We’ve even heard tell of people being completely obsessed with the song, to the point of listening to it thousands of times.

2. “Come On My Selector:” Released in 1999. Not only is this one of Squarepusher’s best songs, from one of his all-time best records (Big Loada), but it was released with a cool music video to boot. We’re fans of it. Jenkinson is actually in the video. Can you find him?

3. “Port Rhombus:” Like the #2 song, also from Big Loada. Jenkinson really kept it real on that record. The acoustic guitar in this has that Spanish / Latin vibe going for it. Combine that with those spacey synths and unique Amen breaks and you’re on to something interesting.

4. “I Wish You Could Talk:” Love the name. Love the track progression. Love how many elements are combined in the track as a working whole. Great for first dates and break-ups!

5. “Massif (Stay Strong):” Straight from the beginning: it’s good. Distorted beats and high-pitched synths aren’t for everyone, but this is a classic for us. The only reason this falls to fifth in the ranking is because once you listen to it enough times it loses some of its freshness. Also, you should note that Squarepusher plays all of his synth melodies with a midi controller bass guitar. Meaning, it’s not a traditional guitar, but one that you can bind synthesizer sounds to. That’s just what he’s most comfortable with.

6. “Iambic 5 Poetry:” Relax with this one. Fond of the bells and the bass.

7. “A Journey To Reedham (7am Mix):” It’s hard to deny the 8-bit, video game feel to this. So, yeah, it brings out the inner 8-bit nerd, which we admit: not everyone has that as a part of them. However, we think that both former Nintendo lovers and anti-video game people alike can like this. There are lots of reasons for why this track wouldn’t be enjoyable for some people, but that could probably be said about Squarepusher’s music in general.

8. “Last Ap Roach:” Stylewise, this is arguably the most different from every other song in the 10. The droning nature of this one not only creates a sort of trance state, but also has a sort of creepy vibe to it. It must be the eerie sirens sound. The irony is, though, are you really creeped out if you’re in a trance? By the way, music in the actual trance genre sucks for the fact that it’s so utterly cheesy, yet is still classifiable as electronic music. There are some genres of electronic music that give electronic music as a whole a bad name. What’s funny is that all music these days is edited and then finalized with computers. Last time we checked computers won’t work without electricity. Maybe that’s knit-picking, but there’s also lots more electronic influence in music than ever before. Take hip-hop, for instance: T-Pain and the autotuner/vocoder obsession. That’s all electronic. Did you realize T-Pain was born in 1985? That means he was 11 when “Tundra” dropped. How many 11 year olds do you know who listen to good music? Seriously.

9. “Theme from Ernest Borgnine:” Actor Ernest Borgnine is an interesting character. We don’t know much about him, aside from the fact that he was in Airwolf. Just look at his photo below as you listen to this song and try and figure out why Squarepusher decided this should be his theme. Just because this is #9 doesn’t mean it’s not great. It just wouldn’t be a ranking without an order. Mr. Borgnine turned 92 in January.

10. “Tommib:” Featured in the soundtrack of the movie Lost In Translation, this is our definition of short and sweet from Jenkinson. The song was released two years before the film. Why wouldn’t there be a lag in the amount of time it took a mainstream director like Sofia Coppola to discover an experimental music song? Of course, who knows who actually picked the song for the movie. Could’ve been the Music Supervisor Brian Reitzell, or any of a handful of people behind the film.

In addition to making music, Datach’i has a career in audio engineering for sounds and music used in commercials that are aired across the US. If you live in the US and watch TV, chances are you have already heard sounds and music that Datach’i was behind. Because of his extensive studio engineering experience, you might want to turn down your main volume slightly right now, because he masters his tracks at a higher than usual level while keeping them free of unintentional distortion.

Buy Datach’i's music in

“Twin Gant:”

We’d also like to note that Datach’i can really shred when it comes to snowboarding. He gets a lot of air and, for all intents and purposes, his snowboarding ability is on the same level as the professionals.

“False Sentiment:”

“In Silence:”

Datach’i getting some:

“Breech:”

“Take Off Your Face:”

“Big Mountain:”

“Suspended Animation:”

Cubans. Fraoili (right):

“Incubate:”

Datachi – The Deconstructing Man:

“Mthel Vii.mp3:”

Canadian electronic musician Venetian Snares–Aaron Funk, born January 11, 1975–composes much of his music with trackers. Before he began to release his music commercially, he worked primarily with OctaMED on an Amiga 500. At some point prior to 2000, he began using a PC and the Windows port of OctaMED, MED Soundstudio. During 2003 and 2005 he also used Cubase in addition to MED. Venetian Snares currently uses Renoise and has uploaded a video of his track ‘Vache’ playing in Renoise on Youtube. In a February 2003 interview, Funk was asked a question regarding the diverse mix of genres he draws upon in his music, a property which the interviewer labelled “eclecticism”. Funk replied: “I prefer to call it Surrealism.”

“Colorless,”

For some reason “Colorless” strikes me as a hi-fi version of the introduction to Future Crew’s 1993 computer production “Second Reality:”

OctaMED

“I’m Sorry I Failed You”

“Felbomlaszt Mentökocsi”

“Fictional Nevada:”

“Hajnal”

“Windowlicker:”

“4 (from the Richard D. James record):”

“Arched Maid via RDJ:”

“Raising The Titanic:”

“To Cure A Weakling Child [Contour Regard]:”

“Mt Saint Michel Mix + St Michaels Mount:”

“Vordhosbn:”

Check out Chris Ghiraldi’s work, art and more here.

New song: added to this post on June 22, 2009:
“Seventeen” by Casxio (“17 Ways Out” Remix by Velapene Screen)

“Chop Suey:”

“Something Is Movable In This Room:”

Here’s a tidbit you might not have known about Ghiraldi. He actually went to college with both Regina Spektor and artist Only Son (singer and songwriter Jack Dishel).

“Damn Random State Shapes:”

Regina Spektor:

Only Son:

“Three Way Call Detroit Cali New York:”

At any rate, first off, here is the Velapene remix of “Untitled,” for you to check out. Interpol actually liked the remix so much that they were hosting it on their official site for quite a while. Although I’m not a huge Interpol fan, I like the “Untitled” track they wrote, but I like the Velapene remix even more. Great tune.

Interpol:

“Untitled (Interpool Swimwear Remix):”

“Our Zone:”

Velapene Screen wrote the music for a Miller Genuine Draft Commercial as well. Observe (love it):

As for the Regina Spektor remix, Velapene chose to morph Spektor’s track “Fidelity,” into another song that is arguably better than the original. Even die-hard Regina Spektor fans shared this sentiment about the remix, which we think speaks for itself. Ghiraldi received lots of attention from Spektor’s fans both as they heard his Fidelity remix and as they learned that he is actually close friends with Spektor. Of course, Velapene was happy to receive the attention and to have Spektor’s fan-base listening to his music. Below is a video for the Fidelity remix that was prepared without Velapene even asking.

“Biting Is For People Too:”

Another Velapene song that had a subsequent YouTube video creation crop up as a result is “ReDhaiRCut,” which is an original of Ghiraldi’s using a handful of samples of Regina Spektor vocals:

And last, but not least, is another artistic video using Velapene’s music. This video actually features one of my favorite tracks by Velapene, although I have many, entitled “Something Is Movable In This Room,” from his Medical Breaths record.

“My Plot Is Askew:”

The first official release for the Velapene Screen moniker – Velatision EP (available from Amazon.com while supply lasts!

Unit (aka Cristian Fleming) is an electronic musician based in New York City. Unit began releasing electronic music officially at the age of 25, although he had musical involvement for many years prior, playing bass guitar at 17, and began working on electronic music at the age of 18. Unit has toured at various venues in Europe. Unit’s first electronic release was an EP entitled “Hello… My Name Is (braille Unit),” and was an immediate hit in the electronic music community. With 4.5/5 stars on discogs.com and 5/5 stars on amazon.com, this album is no joke. Even though the release hit the market on February 23, 1999, it still sounds current. Other former monikers for Unit include Mr. S. Pants, Dotman and Imp.

Discography

• Hello … My Name Is (CD, Maxi), Caipirinha Productions 1999
• The Narcoleptic Symphony (CD), Caipirinha Productions 1999
• Most Of Me Just Thinks It’s Because You’re Heartless (CDr), Co.Ad.Audio 2001
• FT037. Imp. – Music To Fix My Boat By [12"] (11/2001)
• I Came Here To Tell You How It’s Going To Begin (CD), Co.Ad.Audio 2004
• I Came Here To Tell You How It’s Going To Begin (CD), Modulo 2004
• Hello … My Name Is (12″), Bohnerwachs Tontraeger 2005
• The Narcoleptic Symphony (2xLP), Bohnerwachs Tontraeger 2005
• The Narcoleptic Symphony / Hello… My Name Is (3×12″), Bohnerwachs Tontraeger 2005

Album Cover of The Narcoleptic Symphony:

Various audio…

“Gabriel Test:”

“Insula:”

“We Are In Love:”

“Meet Yourself:”

“The Perpetual N°9:”